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Elliot Aronson

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Elliot Aronson was chosen by his peers as one of the 100 most influential psychologists of the twentieth century—and that influence extends to all spheres of the academic life. He is the only psychologist in the history of the American Psychological Association to win its three highest awards: for scientific contributions, for teaching, and for writing. 

Elliot was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1932 and grew up in nearby Revere. As a teenager, he worked as a barker at the Pokerino tables on the Revere Beach boardwalk. In 1950, he earned a work/study scholarship to Brandeis University. He decided to major in psychology after sitting in on a lecture delivered by Abraham Maslow, one of two influential mentors who shaped his values and aspirations. Maslow also served as a matchmaker for Elliot and a star classmate named Vera Rabinek, whom he married in 1954, before heading to the master’s program in psychology at Wesleyan University to work with David McClelland.

From there, Elliot went to Stanford for his Ph.D. and, on a dare, enrolled in a seminar taught by the brilliant and intimidating Leon Festinger, who became Elliot’s other influential mentor. Festinger introduced Elliot not only to cognitive dissonance theory but also to the potential of creative and rigorous experiments to illuminate complex cognitive and motivational processes that many psychologists at the time assumed were either inaccessible or unworthy of study.  

During his faculty tenure at Harvard University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, Elliot distinguished himself as a master teacher whose ability to illuminate complex material attracted huge numbers of undergraduate students to his social psychology classes and mentored dozens of graduate students who subsequently became leaders in the discipline.

He also shaped the field of experimental social psychology, inviting readers to peer over his shoulder as he described the joys, challenges, and practical how-tos of designing and implementing rigorous, creative, and engaging experiments; illuminating the dynamics of human attraction; revising dissonance theory to emphasize the central role of the self in dissonance arousal and attempts to reduce it; and demonstrating the potential of scientific, social psychology to make a difference in the world outside our laboratories. 

Author of over 150 scientific articles and some 22 scholarly books, Elliot has also written with eloquence, humor, wit, and humanity for the wider public. The Social Animal, arguably the most influential social psychology textbook of all time, brought many talented individuals into the field. The Jigsaw Classroom introduced educators to the power of cooperative education to reduce interethnic conflict and improve minority student achievement.

In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), he brought dissonance theory into the modern world, illuminating the many ways in which the need to reduce dissonance through self-justification wreaks havoc in government, law, science, medicine, therapy—and family life. And his elegant, warm memoir, Not By Chance Alone, tells the story of social psychology through the experiences, perceptions, and passions of one of the field’s greatest practitioners.

As a talented leader of encounter groups for the National Training Laboratory (NTL), he has directly improved the lives of thousands of participants with his insights and original exercises that enabled them to make important changes in their relations with family, friends, and co-workers.

Throughout his illustrious and colorful career, Elliot Aronson has continued to shape the present and future of the discipline that he loves. At the age of 91, he remains a master teacher in an international classroom, a prolific and gifted writer for professional colleagues and the public, and the ultimate personification of a public scholar whose formidable intellect is channeled through his unshakeable faith in human potential.

Best author’s book

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The Social Animal

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